Srinagar, Dec 14: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Tuesday informed the parliament that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved significantly since August 2019 and there has been a decline in militant incidents. 

The Ministry also said that a turnout of 98.29 percent was registered in Block Development Councils (BDC) elections in 2019 and 51.42 percent in 2020 District Development Council (DDC) elections.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was Tuesday replying to queries in the parliament including the situation post repealing Article 370 and whether the elections of BDC and District Development Council in Kashmir have been conducted peacefully.

In a written reply the Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Nityanand Rai as per news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir has improved significantly since August 2019 and there has been a decline in militant incidents.

“Security grid has been further strengthened and infiltration of militants from across the border has also come down significantly,” the union minister said.

Nityanand informed the Parliament that between 2018 and 2021 (up to 5 December) a total of 1,122 militant related incidents have surfaced.

The Minister also informed that an estimated total of 360 infiltrations have taken place between 2018 and 2021 up to 31 October.

He maintained that the Government has taken several steps to boost development of Jammu & Kashmir.

“The progress of projects being implemented in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir under the Prime Minister’s Development Package-2015 has been accelerated. 53 projects pertaining to 15 Ministries are being implemented at a cost of Rs 58,477 crores in various sectors such as Roads, Power, Health, Education, Tourism, Agriculture, Skill Development etc, out of which 21 projects have been completed or substantially completed and the remaining 32 projects are at advanced stage of progress,” the Minister said.

Nityanand said that a New Central Sector Scheme has been notified on  19 February 2021 for the Industrial Development of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, with an outlay of Rs 28,400 crores, which is likely to provide employment to over 4.5 lakh people while boosting the industrial development of J&K.

“The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has approved a business revival package of Rs. 1,352.99 Crores on 25th September, 2020,” he said. “Under the languishing projects programme, 1192 projects worth Rs 1983.77 crore were completed, including 5 projects which were incomplete for more than 20 years, 15 projects for more than 15 years and 165 projects for more than 10 years.”

Nityanand also said that J&K has been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF) under Swachh Bharat Mission adding that 100 percent saturation has been achieved in 17 Individual beneficiary centric schemes, including Saubhagya, Ujala, Ujjwala and Indradhanush schemes.

The Minister further informed that during the year 2020-21, 1289 road construction works were completed at a cost of Rs 1638 crore. “The construction work of 14500 km of road has been completed so far under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, which has connected about 2000 places.”

He informed that work is under progress on one All India Institute of Medical Sciences each in Jammu and Kashmir Divisions at the cost of Rs 2000 crores each besides seven other medical colleges in the UT of J&K.

“Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Jammu have been made functional. Power projects are being fast tracked and Generation capacity of 2500 MW is to be added by 2025. International flight from Srinagar to Sharjah has been started on 23.10.2021”, the Minister said, adding that in addition, night flights from Jammu and Srinagar have also been started.

The Union Minister said that the scope of High Density Plantation Scheme for Apple has been expanded to include Mango, Litchi, Cherry, Walnut etc. Kashmiri Saffron has been given the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.

“Under fast-track recruitment, 20323 posts are being filled by the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board. 2119 selections for Gazetted posts have been made by the Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission in various departments, he informed the parliament. “During the current financial year, 137870 persons have been covered under various self-employment schemes of different government departments.”

The Minister said that the elections to the BDC and DDCs in Kashmir were conducted peacefully and successfully in 2019 and 2020 respectively. “There was an enthusiastic participation of the people, with a turnout of 98.29 percent.